10-Year-Old Begins Gender Reassignment Treatment

A 10-year-old boy in Australia will be allowed to undergo hormone replacement therapy to halt male puberty, paving the way for him to undergo further gender reassignment treatment when he is older. The boy is identified as “Jamie” in family court documents. He was diagnosed with gender identity disorder when he was seven.

Jamie began dressing as a girl at home and being treated as a girl by his family in 2008. Justice Linda Dessau, who referred to Jamie as she, took into account the opinions of medical experts including Jamie's psychiatrist.

Jamie dresses in feminine clothes, using the girls' toilet at school and presents “as a very attractive young girl with long, blonde hair,” the court heard. Her mother said though doctors had told her Jamie would be the youngest patient to start such treatment, she was confident it was in her best interests.